The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) said the new legal proceedings focused on Rio's failure to acknowledge losses related to the investment in an interim financial report issued in 2012.

The sale of Rio's stake in the Kestrel mine to private equity manager EMR Capital and Indonesia's Adaro Energy Tbk was made at a significant premium to analysts' expectations and was Rio's third coal deal this month.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission said the company and its former Chief Executive Tom Albanese and former Chief Financial Officer Guy Elliott had made misleading statements in their 2011 annual report, published in 2012.

In letters filed with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the Securities and Exchange Commission said its complaint adequately alleged that fraud occurred, and that Rio Tinto, former Chief Executive Thomas Albanese and former Chief Financial Officer Guy Elliott intended to deceive investors.

The U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority also said Tuesday it had reached a settlement with Rio Tinto under which the company would pay a fine of £27 million ($35.6 million) to settle claims that it breached accounting rules in connection with the Mozambique assets.

Together with its Japanese joint venture partners, Itochu Corp and Sumitomo Corp, Glencore said it would start a "sales process" for its Rolleston mine, which produces thermal coal used for making electricity.

Rio Tinto cut its full-year production target for hard coking coal to 7.2-7.8 million tonnes following a 14 percent fall in second-quarter production after a cyclone that swept across its collieries earlier this year.

While the prime minister's call to `Make in India' seems to have found enthusiastic takers among overseas mining machinery companies like Germany's ThyssenKrupp and Korea's Hyundai, who want to make India their global manufacturing hub, large mining firms like Anglo American and Rio Tinto are also looking at their prospects here with renewed vigour.